


Too Loud Beats and Too Little Light

by mariuspondmercy



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, First Meetings, Fluff, Meet-Cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-09
Updated: 2017-08-09
Packaged: 2018-12-13 01:14:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11749047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mariuspondmercy/pseuds/mariuspondmercy
Summary: Marius really isn't good at realising when someone is flirting with him - not at all.





	Too Loud Beats and Too Little Light

**Author's Note:**

> So this tumblr prompt got a little long which is why I decided to cross-post it. Enjoy!

Okay, Courfeyrac had vanished to -- somewhere. No need to panic. This was just a club. A club full of people. Sweaty, dancing people. And loud music. And the smell of alcohol. Oh God, why had he ever agreed to come with Courfeyrac to this party? It was horrible! Luckily, he found a free table at the very end of the club where he could just sit down and wait for Courfeyrac to come back. Hopefully soon. Marius really wanted to go home. He was tired and uncomfortable. Everything was too loud, too full, too warm. He didn’t even quite notice when another person slid into the booth right next to him. Marius merely looked up to check if it was Courfeyrac but that wasn’t the case. 

“So...” the person - a woman - shouted, “I haven’t seen you around. You come here often?”

Marius turned towards her and shook his head. “No, my first time here. You?”

He couldn’t quite make her out in the dim light of the club but at least her voice was nice - even though she had to shout to make herself audible. 

“Not really. My first time, too! My friend dragged me here, actually.”

“Yeah, same,” Marius yelled over the music. “But I don’t know where he is!”

“I don’t know where my friend is either! She just vanished into the crowd! Do you maybe want a drink?” 

“Sure, yeah, why not.” All the yelling and shouting made his throat dry anyway. “A water?”

“Gotcha! Wait here for me?”

“Yeah, would be stupid of me to leave, right?” 

The woman gently squeezed his hand before going to get drinks. When she came back, she slid in right next to him again, pushing the glass of water towards him. 

“Here’s your water... uhm...”

“Marius! My name is Marius, sorry,” he quickly introduced himself. 

“Cosette, hi!” She smiled - at least Marius thought she smiled. It kinda looked like it but who could tell with this light? 

“So if you don’t come here often, what else do you do for fun?”

Marius dreaded this question. He wasn’t fun. He didn’t do anything fun. Meet friends, watch movies, read books - those weren’t very fun hobbies. 

“Uhm... I... don’t know?” 

“You don’t know?” She laughed softly. 

Oh God, that was it. People usually laughed at him but not always directly to his face. 

“So if you weren’t here, what else would you do? What’s your typical Friday night like?”

“Uhm... it varies, you know? Depending on what my friends are up to... what about you? What do you like to do for fun?”

“I like kite surfing. It’s not really something you can do here in Paris but my dad and I often went to England and I learned it there. It’s really fun. Do you do any sports?”

“Does pilates count? My friend offers dancing lessons but I’m hopeless.”

“Pilates absolutely counts. So you must be very flexible?” 

“Not really...” Marius shrugged his shoulders. 

Cosette hummed softly. They where both quiet for a while before Cosette asked: “So... uhm... how do you like interior design?”

“Interior design?” 

“Yeah... I bet you could make every room look beautiful.”

“Oh, I’m really bad with colours! I just recently moved into a new flat with my friend and had another friend decorate it all because I’m hopeless. Less so than with dancing but still...” 

“Yet you are in a club.”

“My friend’s fault. He wanted me to go out and meet new people. I met new people like last week! And two years ago! I became friends with them. That should be enough. I have 12 friends, that’s more than I have fingers.”

Cosette laughed and leaned a little closer to him. “I think you’d make a really good friend. See, I just moved to Paris for uni so I am in need of friends.”

“Oh! I can introduce you to mine. They’re a little intense but lovely. They run a left wing political student party... maybe you’ve seen flyers around campus? Les Amis De L’ABC.”

“I know them, yes. I actually thought of going there at some point. Now I definitely will, thanks to you.” 

“We meet every Wednesday at 8pm at the Musain. It’s easy to find.”

“I’ve never been there. Maybe I could give you my number and we could meet before so you can take me there? I would hate to get lost.”

“Yeah, sure.” Marius handed her his phone to have her add her number. 

“Okay, I’ve send myself a message so I’ve got your number as well in case I can’t make it next week. Do you maybe want to get out of here and go somewhere quiet so you can tell me more about the group?”

“I don’t know, I don’t really want to abandon my friend...”

“We could just stand outside? He’ll have to go outside to check his phone anyway since the reception here is crap.”

Marius nodded and quickly followed Cosette outside. He was thankful for the quiet, the fresh air, the space. This was so much better! He only hoped Courfeyrac would find him here. 

“Tell me about the group. What’s your function in it?”

“I just... sort of show up, I guess? I talked a bit about gendered language the other day and the importance of introducing gender-neutral pronouns to French. Similar as in English.”

“Do you speak English well?”

“I’m fluent in it, yes. I suppose you speak English, too, since you’ve been there on holiday frequently?” Marius leaned against the brick wall behind him and took a deep breath. 

He finally turned towards Cosette, still not being able to see much of her as the alley was fairly dark. 

“Yeah, I’m fluent as well. But those are the only two languages I speak. Do you speak any?”

“Uhm... I’m fluent in German and Spanish and Arabic as well, my Latin and Greek is quite good, I’m currently learning Swedish and Vietnamese.”

“Oh wow! That’s so many languages! I bet you’re really good with your tongue then. Do you study linguistics?”

“I’m not. I’m doing translations on the side but I’m enrolled in Law. Kinda hate it. What do you study?”

“Social work. I want to go into adoption and working with families who are about to or have just adopted a child. Sort of as a counselor.”

“That’s a lovely idea! It’s good that you’ve found your passion.”

Cosette grinned and nudged him softly. “I have plenty passions and I think tonight I discovered a new one.”

“Oh really? Is it clubbing?”

“Oh God, no! I don’t think I’ll ever go clubbing again. It’s too loud, there’s too many people and you need ages to get out. Not my cup of tea.”

“Mine neither. Oh, there’s my friend! Courfeyrac! Hey! Over here!”

Courfeyrac turned around, waving at Marius before he headed over to them. 

“There you are! I lost you in there for like two hours!” He sighed. “Hi, Courfeyrac, nice to meet you,” he introduced himself to Cosette. “So... I hope I’m not interrupting?”

“Not at all,” Marius smiled. “Can we go home now, please? I didn’t want to leave without you.”

“Are you sure you wanna leave? What’s with your friend here?”

“Oh, right! Should we wait for your friend? I don’t feel good letting you walk home all alone.”

“You could bring me home,” Cosette said. 

“We could do that,” Marius nodded. “Are you sure you don’t want to wait?”

“Pretty sure. I’ll send her a text message, it’s all good.”

Together, the three of them made their way to Cosette’s flat. During the walk, Cosette kept asking Marius questions to which he sometimes didn’t know the answer and sometimes felt too embarrassed to answer honestly yet he still did. Honesty was important, after all. It didn’t take them too long before they said their goodbyes to Cosette, parting with the promise that she’d come to the next Les Amis meeting if Marius would pick her up earlier that day. 

“Dude, she was so flirting with you,” Courfeyrac laughed as soon as they had rounded the next corner on their way home.

“She what now?”

“Flirting!”

“Nah. I mean... she only talked to me because she lost her friend. And she bought drinks because the shouting made our throats dry, probably. And she only wants me to pick her up because she might not find the café... oh my god, she was flirting with me!”

Courfeyrac laughed loudly. “Yes she was! What are you gonna do about that?”

“I don’t know! She was nice and all but I’m not sure I can talk to her ever again. I just... should I sent her a message to clarify if she was flirting?”

“Yes, do that. Then you know where you’re at and how to behave the next time you see her.”

Marius nodded, quickly shooting off a message. 

[Marius] Were you flirting with me? 

The response came nearly immediately. 

[Cosette] took you a while to notice ;) hope you didn’t mind? 

[Marius] not at all. looking forward to seeing you again when we’re both less tired and don’t have to shout at each other

[Cosette] looking forward to that, too! 


End file.
